Hi all,

Well, it is midnight and I have to be at Good Samaritain Hospital in a few hours to work on the Labor and Delivery floor. MMMMM….did you know when kids are born they look like they’ve had cottage cheese spread on them? Ok, I’m going to bed but at least I have started this live journal. Which is something that I have been wanting to do for awhile (even though I will blame Gabrielle, stating it was her constant peer pressure—I love you hunny bunny).

nite all,
Karl

Since I was sick a few weeks ago I missed on pediatric clinical rotation at Hope Children’s hospital. I had a nasty little fever and since I was supposed to be in the neonatal intensive care unit I didn’t feel it was appropriate to go. So I had to make it up. Well my instructors couldn’t get me another day at the hospital due to contractual restraints, instead they sent me to the LaGrange Community Nurse Clinic which is a free clinic for individuals and families that are low or no income. It was a pretty cool experience. I got to see some disease process that I didn’t get to see at the hospital. It was also a neat experience because when you are at the hospital, you kinda have everything you need and there is all sorts of support you can call to help your patients out. At this clinic, which is run entirely through grants, donations and their resale shops, the nurses must be more creative and have a good set of critical thinking skills. For example, one patient, a newborn was diagnosed with failure to thrive where he is underweight and developmentally challenged came into the clinic with his mentally retarded mother. The newborn was not feeding and so the doctors surgically inserted a G-Tube in which food is directly placed into the gut. Well, the child is supposed to feed four times a day, but since the mother had to work and the father is not around, except for the occasional booty call, the kid would miss out and only get fed three times. Now, a little history the mother has two previous kids. One kid has whats called Happy Puppet Syndrome, which involves severe mental retardation and muscular problems that causes a permanent smile and for the arms to be flexed at the elbow. It makes the patient look like a happy marionette. Her second child is also developmentally challenged and has a mitchondrial disorder that prevents his gastrointestinal tract from working properly. So what do you do when you have a mentally challenged mother, who keeps getting pregnant, who is low income, and keeps bearing children with severe medical issues. Anyone who says nursing isn’t a hard job is obviously a dumb ass.

I had lots of differnt patients today ranging from baby immunizations (ok, now that is tough—you try giving a 3 month old 5 injections into his thighs), Otitis media (ear aches) that turned into a ruptured eardrum, to a sixteen year old girl that was a 28 premie (she has been challenged mentally, has significant hearing loss bilaterally, and is developing arthritic problems) who is dehydrated, underweight and cannot keep food down. Keep in mind, these people don’t have money or resources. They can’t just go get some groceries or medicines, they can’t even buy things on a credit card. One little girl was referred from the dental clinic because the dentist was afraid that her tonsils were too big. When I looked, OMG! Her entire throat was blocked, her tonsils were not only actually touching each other but smashed up against each other. Fortunately, we could treat her with antibiotics and surgery was not necessary.

You know when we hear free clinic, it is easy to jump to the assumption that the patients are all illegal minorities or drug addicts. However, the majority of my patients this day were caucasians. I would encourage all of us to find some time to volunteer in whatever capacity, for whatever charity to help out our own people in need.